Trip photos

We have most of the trip photos gathered from all of our camera. I decided to put the best ones on our picasa web album.

Trip Presentation

Join us on Sunday, September 14th at 6:00 p.m. for the Guatemala Trip Presentation. Team members will share their experiences in Guatemala and we will show a 20 minute video presentation.

Back in Bellingham

It is wonderful to finally be home. It was a full two weeks and it will be nice to get back to our regular lives.

The morning began at 4:30 a.m. (guatemala time). We loaded the vans and headed for the airport at 5:15 a.m. The flights to Dallas and Seattle were long and uneventful. I think that is what we needed. The layover in Dallas was barely long enough to go through immigration, get our checked luggage, go through customs, re-check our luggage, and hurry to the gate. We we some of the last passengers boarding the plane.

We arrived at Immanuel Bible Church around 7:15 p.m. That is a grand total of 15 hours of travel. We will sleep good tonight.

We are thankful for your prayers and support. The trip turned out better than we expected and we know it is because you were praying for us.

We are coming home!

We had a wonderful time today in Panajachel. We took a boat ride on Lake Atitlan and went to a wildlife reserve. Carl brought some bananas to feed the monkeys but they seemed to be full. The meals today has been wonderful so far. We had breakfast at one hotel and lunch at a different one.

We just arrived back at SETECA for our last evening. In an hour, we are going to a local restaurant for dinner and returning to campus to get to bed early. We have to leave for the airport very early tomorrow morning.

Please pray for safe travel back to Bellingham, an easy time getting back into the United States, and for God to continue to show us how to use all of the things we have learned on this trip. 

We hope to see you soon.

Our last workday at camp

We finshed the fence before lunch (ahead of schedule) and had some time to relax while the playground crew finished. Around 3:00, some church leaders came to the camp to formally thank the group for our work. They were very thankful and a huge encouragement to us.

We plan to see some sites tomorrow and drive back to SETECA. We are going out for all of our meals tomorrow. There arent many restaurants here that we recognise, so we are in for an adventure.

The whole team is excited abotu coming back Friday. Thank you for praying.

Workday two

We continutued to work today  on the projects we started yesterday. The group working on the play structure were able to start building now that the concrete was set. The fence group set a new record and installed 3 rolls of fence. Each roll is roughly 75 feet. The team is tired from working so hard but it feels good to make an investment in the ministry in Guatemala.

Tongith, we will have some spaghetti for dinner (yum) and have plenty of time to sleep. Tomorrow is our last work day at the camp. We will spend Thursday seeing some sites on our drive back to SETECA. We will have just enough time at SETECA to pack our bags, get some sleep, and drive to the airport Friday morning.

It is nice to be at the end of the trip. It has been a good trip but it will also be nice to be home with our families and friends. Pray that we will finish well.

Workday at the camp

We had a busy day working at the camp. This place we are working is just being built. Some of us started to build a play structure. They dug holes, set posts, and poured concrete. The rest of the group worked on putting up a chain link fence. We were able to get about 75 feet of femce installed today. We have another 150-200 feet to install tomorrow and the next day.

We returned to the place we are staying just in time for a quick shower before dinner. The meals have been amazing so far. We are really blessed.

Keep praying for us and we hope to see you all soon.

We made it

We arrived at our second destination this afternoon. The houses are very nice. We are looking forward to staying here for a few days.

Tonight, we will attend a local church. The team has prepared some special music.

Please pray that the team would get caught up on sleep and adjust well to our new ministry location.

Thank you for your prayers.

Saturday in Antigua

The morning began with devotions and a delicious breakfast cooked by Lee. We left for Antigua around 9:30am and spent the day looking at historical landmarks and shopping in the market. For lunch, we ate at Pollo Campero. It felt like a fast food place except they had waiters. The food was good and the brave members of our team tried the flan.

We had dinner at the Matrinsens and Sywulkas houses. All of our food was cooked over an open flame. The first thing we ate was hotdogs. This was followed up with dough on a stick cooked over the flames. we finished dinner off with some ice cream. Our team has been totally blessed by the hospitality of the Martinsens and Sywulkas.

We leave tomorrow for another city where we will stay at a camp and do some work. The place we are going is somewhat rural and we will try to get the website updated. If we can’t get internet, don’t worry. We will send an update at the next possible opportunity.

Please pray that the team will have endurance to finish this last part of the trip well. We are all getting tired and need to rely on God’s strength. The great part of relying on God is that He alone gets the glory. We can also remember to thank God for the wonderful trip we have had. he is good!

Friday in Guatemala

Today has been a great day. One of the SETECA faculty shared with us this morning about the ways God has directed him to be a missionary. We spent some time in town at Casita Benjamin, the cemetary, and the city dump.

Lee is cooking dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow. We are looking forward to some good food. We plan to venure out for a day of sightseeing tomorrow.

Please pray for safety, team unity, and wisdom to make good choices.

Be sure to check out the latest photos from the trip and the video update below.